THE HESPERIAN
"A PASTEL IN PJiOSE.
Ho was ii fair youth and of a ruddy coun
tenance like the voutlis the Bible talks about.
His raven hair was brushed back in a care
less, impetuous way from a high whito fore
head such as female novelists love to write
of. His eyes wore bright, flashing with self
confidence and self-satisfaction. His cheeks
were exceedingly rosy and his smile was one
molting sweetness. Ho wore glasses which
added to the general clerical air about him.
His name and appearance were biblical, and
his bearing was one of conscious virtue. He
was one of those happiest of all mortals, a
genius who was fully conscious of his power.
In conversation he was rapid, eloquent, and
oratorical. Ho had that facile mastery of
expression, which is the result of years of
practice as a University guide. Ho pre
sented, explained and dismissed literature,
art, and the problems in the same pleasant
and kindly tones In which he once glibly re
peated the well-known phrase, "This is the
hall of the Union Society; wo have three
societies, Union, Palladian, Delian, etc."
Ho is just as gentle and considerate with the
problems of the universe as he used to bo
with his follow-editors, but the problems see
a little more of him than did the unfortunate
editors. Ho did not waste the beaming of
his ruddy countenance upon a college paper,
he reserved it for Greatness and Genius and
Fate and other trivial matters. Ho was a
very pleasant little follow, particularly
sweet tempered when the sense of his own
greatness gavo him wings. On bright
sunlight mornings when ho has beon much
impressed with his boauty of thought, ho
used to walk rapidly by the stono walks
scarcely aware that his foot touched this
lowly earth and vaguely wondering why the
main building did not literally bow itself
down before him and grovel the weather
signal in tho dirt. It soomed to him that
ho could hoar all future agos ringing with
his name. Ho often wondered when he
shook hands with people if they know how
proud and fortunate they should consider
thomsolvos because they permitted to speak
to him face to face.
w -x-
Such ho was before tho fall. Since then
wo have seen little of him. Messrs Dennis,
Kier and Van Ness have beon working over
him since tho 19th trying by their united
effort to make a hat band big enough to
span that noble brow teeming with great
ideas. Ho and all his followers aro at
present beyond tho range of vision, swept
under by the awful vortex of vanity, when
thoy rise to tho surface again wo will strive
once more to "mirror passing greatness in
tho minds of men."
THE STUDENT AND THE STAGE.
It is passing strange how much students
know about tho theatre and how very deli
cate their taste is. Tho other clay I heard
one of them decide that Schalcls voice was
"cracked" and that Modjeska was not
"natural," and I have been pondering over
tho news ever since. Needless to say, this
gentleman was not a regular theatro-goer.
Ho was ono of the type who only go to the
theatre whon Shakespeare's name appears
on tho bills, who takes his Hamlet and his
opera glasses and acenpies a seat in tho bal
cony. He studies his Plato between the
acts, and watches tho play from tho stand
point of a superior intellect looking down
upon an earthly world. He knows nothing'
whatever about the theatre itself or about
what can bo done thoro. Ho only goes to
see a play that ho is sure is sufficiently ele
vated. Ho is ignorant of stage possibilities
and stage limitations, ho has never even
beon across tho footlights. Ho thinks be
cause he has studied Hamlet ho knows how
Hamlet should bo played. Ho might just
as well say that because ho has read the
play he can toll an artist painting a Hamlet
what colors to use and how to lay them.
Ho knows the main conception, but of tho
detail of an actor's art ho is utterly ignorant.
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